Standing On Our Own Two Feet

“My friends are doing it” we would say to our parents and their reply: “If your friends were jumping off a bridge would you do it?” Being young and foolish we would answer with a resounding “YES!”. But as we grow older and hopefully wiser, we realize that the answer is debatable. In order to know for sure if we would jump off the bridge, we would need to know where the bridge is located, how high up the bridge is, is there water under the bridge, and how deep is that water?

Just because your friends are doing it doesn’t mean you should do it.

I am reminded of this as I plan our upcoming homeschool year.

Most of my homeschooling friends and the boys’ friends are a part of one of the four local Classical Conversations’ communities. We were a part of our local CC community up until this past year when I decided I needed a break. I have enjoyed not having to get up early and get the boys up early and packing lunches and heading out of the door by 7-7:30 in the morning. Oh the life of a CC Tutor! I enjoyed my tutoring days and I enjoy being surrounded by like-minded individuals. The accountability factor is a plus and knowing that there were other families using the same materials brought a comfort that we all couldn’t be wrong.

But it was time for a break.

I felt a shifting inside of me our last year in CC. I knew change was coming but I did not know what that change was or what it would look like so I searched. I applied to be a director and I started the interview process. But that door was closed; not because I wasn’t qualified or I didn’t “pass” my interview; the director I was going to be replacing decided she wasn’t ready to step down. The search continued…

After that door closed, our family decided the change meant that we were to follow a dear friend who was starting a new community and most of our friends were going too so that had to be God, right? Our friends were doing it so why not? CC is a fantastic program and offers a wonderful classical education, could we go wrong? Yes, yes we could; by not following the Lord and by halting the Holy Spirit to whisper to our hearts what was best. That is sin folks. The sons of God are led by the Spirit of God.

“For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father’.” Romans 8:13-15

As I plan this year and ponder what path we are to take, I am tempted to go back. I am tempted to return to CC.

My friends want me back in their community. Another friend wants me in her community. But it’s just not the right fit for our family.

Classical Conversations offers a true classical education whose focus is on geography and Latin. It follows the trivium: grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric learning stages. I truly enjoy the Foundations and Essentials programs but unfortunately the Challenge level (dialectic and rhetoric) does not offer the flexibility to tailor the program to fit your child. You are to tailor your child to fit the program – that’s just not why my husband and I have chosen a home centered education for our family. If you talk to directors and to parents, they will say that mom is still the teacher and you can make the program fit your child but that just is not the case. There are expectations. Expectations of excellence. What is “excellence” in education anyway? When we are looking for it aren’t we comparing one to another? And doesn’t Paul teach us in Second Corinthians that comparing ourselves to one another is unwise?

Just because your friends are doing it doesn’t mean you should do it.

I have searched and met with three other groups; I guess you could say that I’ve been “spying out the land” to see where we fit. The synopsis is, I am trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. It just doesn’t fit. “If it ain’t fittin’, it jes ain’t fittin'”. Mammy from Gone with the Wind

My husband and I have talked, we have prayed, we have pondered, but it seems that we just aren’t meant for a co-op or group setting again this year. I asked him, “Would God really call us to stand alone? To do this all by ourselves?” I believe the answer is yes. He called Abram out from everyone he knew. Elijah was alone in the wilderness. Daniel prayed alone. Throughout scripture we find that the Lord often called great men to stand alone. We are in good company!

So here we stand, each on our own two feet knowing that we are following God’s way.

“Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go.” Jeremiah 1:7